Maui County will begin requiring incoming travelers to take a second COVID-19 test, according to Hawaii News Now. The new requirement will go into effect later this month for travelers entering Maui from the Mainland. The test will be free of charge to travelers.

Visitors who do not take the second test will have to observe a ten-day quarantine. Maui and Oahu have been seeing a higher number of COVID-19 cases, leading to the need for the additional safety measure.

“This secondary test has been designed to determine if visitors and returning residents are contributing to the large rate of COVID-19 here in Maui,” said Mayor Michael Victorino.

“We’ve been working on it and I think we have it pretty much up,” he said. “Now it’s a matter of getting the machinery, the personnel trained and all of that. That all needs to be put in place, and we’re hoping we can do that in the next ten working days, which will take us toward the end of April.”

Hawaii has already been requiring visitors to show a negative COVID-19 test result in order to enter. In addition, Maui County has already been offering free voluntary testing for travelers upon arrival. Out of 31,547 tests, 797 have been positive.

There has been discussion of a vaccine passport before visiting the state. However, Governor David Ige said the hesitation to move forward with such initiatives is, in part, due to the higher rates recently seen in Maui and Oahu.

He reminds people to be patient as the new program could face some early challenges during times when multiple flights are arriving at the same time.

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